[electricslpnsld]

> Even niche interest groups in the bay area are dominated by people who work in tech.

I don't think this is true. In San Francisco 12% of the population is tech workers, while the valley is closer to just 30%. I live in Oakland and outside of work encounter almost no one that works in tech.

[godot]

I also agree, living in the east bay. In cities like Hayward, Union City, San Leandro, Castro Valley, you will most likely find that most people you meet locally don't work in tech. I can see the same for San Francisco, but chances are people on HN tend to hang out in neighborhoods like SOMA where it's a lot more tech, than neighborhoods like Sunset where it's not.

[timr]

While I agree that there are better and worse places in the bay area, they mostly self-partition based on the pain of transportation to tech centers. Sure, you can always choose a more painful commute to escape tech, but that's implicit. You can commute from Fresno or Marin, too.

East bay neighborhoods that have "easy" access to SF/Facebook/Google are just as clogged with tech people as anywhere else, modulo the pain of a daily BART commute.

(Also, arguing about exact percentages isn't relevant. It doesn't matter if it's 12% or 30%, if the group overlaps substantially in lifestyle and interests. If I have to change my entire lifestyle to avoid being surrounded by tech bros, I'd rather just move somewhere where I can go out and not be surrounded.)